This month I celebrate 20 years of being meat free. I don’t remember the exact date but I had just got back from driving down to Florida with friends for spring break in April 1996. I was midway through a burger and couldn’t stop thinking about all the transport trucks we passed on our road trip along the way that were carrying livestock. It was my my much-needed “ah-ha” moment.
Though I can’t help but think I connected the dots years earlier as a little girl in Nigeria, raised on the goats I played with. As a result it was a constant struggle to get me to eat meat. Had my parents known any different — that there were other ways to get protein — perhaps they would have provided me with alternatives. But they didn’t.
I don’t blame them for this. The same way I hope my children won’t point fingers at me for raising them as vegetarians.
This is a legit photo of a family of pigs on Exuma Island in the Bahamas, and I added the Kafka quote. Rumored to have been brought to Exuma hundreds of years ago by explorers, or to have swam to shore following a shipwreck enroute to slaughter, the origin of the islands’ swimming pigs is pretty much unknown. What is certain is how incredibly lucky they are.
I ever had much desire to go to the Bahamas being that their tourist industry is known for importing captive dolphins. But I’m bucket-listing swimming with pigs for sure!